The woods of the Appalachian mountains and the Pacific Northwest are the home of the outdoorsy Brown-Hooded Cockroach.

Not all cockroaches want to live near humans. The Brown-Hooded Cockroach is a woodland cockroach that prefers the great outdoors to kitchen cupboards pantries.

This small, social insect lives in large congregations inside and around decaying tree trunks, stumps and limbs. Keeping the generations together is the only way of keeping the population alive. Nymphs of the Brown-Hooded Cockroach are hatched without the ability to digest cellulose, the chief component of plant cells. Their diet is decaying wood which is made of cellulose, so nymphs need a way to break down wood. Adults rely on cellulose-destroying protozoans in their digestive organs in order to glean nutrition from the wood. In order to ingest the same necessary protozoans, the nymphs must feed on the fecal matter of adults. Without the feces, which harbors the living protozoans, the nymphs would essentially starve to death.

The Brown-Hooded Cockroach does not enter buildings with the intention of living there like other nuisance cockroaches. It is not considered a pest. Nature is its preferred domain. As rotting wood comprises both habitat and food, the Brown-Hooded Cockroach is likely to be found in woodlands and forests. Check fallen trees and broken branches that are large enough to hold extended family.

Note: An insect's reach is not limited by lines drawn on a map and therefore species may appear in areas, regions and/or states beyond those listed below as they are driven by environmental factors (such as climate change), available food supplies and mating patterns. Grayed-out selections below indicate that the subject in question has not been reported in that particular territory. U.S. states and Canadian provinces / territories are clickable to their respective bug listings.

The map below showcases (in red) the states and territories of North America where the Brown-Hooded Cockroach may be found (but is not limited to). This sort of data can be useful in seeing concentrations of a particular species over the continent as well as revealing possible migratory patterns over a species' given lifespan. Some species are naturally confined by environment, weather, mating habits, food resources and the like while others see widespread expansion across most, or all, of North America.